While we don't see anything on the near term horizon that might trigger major monetary system change, below are some links to some recent news articles on a variety of topics that might be of interest are related to things that could eventually impact monetary system or monetary policy change.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This article appearing in Fortune asks if Federal Reserve policies have contributed to the income inequality that is fueling debate heading into the next election cycle. Here is a quote from the article:
"Income inequality in America has worsened in recent decades. Many on the left, buttressed by a not-insignificant number of those on the right, have argued for an increasingly progressive income tax code to tackle this problem.
But they’re focusing on the wrong solution—instead, the target ought to be the Federal Reserve." . . . . click here for the full article
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Recently, we featured a speech by Agustin Carstens (BIS) that provided an update on the status of central bank efforts to look at blockchain and central bank digital currencies. He stated that process is ongoing, but that most central banks are not moving forward with digital currencies or blockchain so far. This article in Bloomberg does mention some testing going on between Canada and Singapore related to blockchain (see joint statement here). This still appears to be early stage type testing, but is some movement that was recently in the news.
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In the latest BIS newsletter, Agustin Carstens is again featured talking about financial innovation as it may relate to financial inclusion. You can read that speech by clicking here.
"Financial inclusion is the gateway to increased prosperity. Central banks play a key role simply by fulfilling their price and financial stability objectives. At the same time, innovation and technology are needed too." -- Agustin Carstens
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My added comments: In April and May we have tried to provide a variety of good educational material for anyone interested in the topics covered here. Please skim back over April and May if you have not seen all the articles. There is a lot of good information from a variety of credible sources.
Related to that, John Stossel produced this article on Reason and the video below summarizing the PBS documentary "In Money We Trust" that we featured here in April.
Other news headlines to keep en eye on that could impact markets:
- possible release of classified documents related to the investigation of President Trump
- ongoing trade war between the US and China with G20 meeting coming up in June
- US dispute with Iran seems to be ramping up
- any further nominations to the Federal Reserve (Judy Shelton and Derek Kan have been mentioned in recent news articles). In this new interview on CNBC Judy Shelton provides some insight on how she might try to impact thinking at the Fed if nominated and confirmed.
On the above list, the first three are more likely to possibly impact markets than the last one. It seems like no matter what happens, markets just plug along and show no indications that any kind of serious disruption to the existing order is even possible. But we still have to stay alert and monitor events that have the potential to rattle markets.
In Money We Trust? is a good documentary. There are companies working hard to develop a solution with a 1/1 backing of a cryptocurrency with gold and silver for fast inexpensive transaction. One particular company is www.kinesis.money which has now minted over 1 million USD worth of gold into crypto form and the monetary system (including a debit card) is scheduled to be released July 1, 2019. There have been delays in its introduction due to overzealous estimates of the amount of work to be done, but progress is being made. There is particularly enthusiastic response in Africa and the Middle East.
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